Welcome Kitty!

5 November 2018

Welcome, Kitty Langton, who brings her wealth of arts and culture knowledge and rock star account management skills to team Kallaway.

In the visual arts she’s run the PR for Artes Mundi, the UK’s biggest international art prize and numerous Saatchi Gallery’s blockbuster exhibitions including From Selfie to Self-Expression andBlack Mirror: Art as Social Satire. For National Museum Wales she helped Ragnar Kjartansson’s five week organ performance The Sky in a Room become the Museum’s most visited show this year.

She’s worked with artists at all stages of their careers. Most recently the solo exhibition Ladyland by supermodel photographer Ellen von Unwerth, and Zsofia Schweger’s debut solo show BLOC. Schweger, as a result of the attention she received from her exhibition, was listed as Forbes 30 Under 30 for artists to watch.

In literature she’s developed the international positioning for the Dylan Thomas Prize, and has also helped build the brand profile of the Cheltenham Literature Festival, Latitude and Henley Festivals. She also launched the debut book by illustrator and “doodlebomber” Hattie Stewart.

Here’s seven best of Kitty’s year, other than joining Kallaway of course:

Best music:

Best gigs, hard to split Christine & the Queens and Blood Orange. Both different, both outstanding. Best album, my most played album of late has been Sweetener by Ariana Grande (don’t judge me).

Best exhibition:

Ragnar Kjartansson at National Museum of Wales was just astonishing and will stay with me for a long time. But I love Heather Phillipson's weird and wacky egg installation my name is lettie eggsyrub at Gloucester Road. It’s the highlight of my daily commute and is an outstanding example of public art – go see it! If contemporary art isn’t your bag – you can’t beat Royal Academy’s exhibition of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt’s extraordinary drawings.

Best book:

2018 was the year I was converted to short stories. My favourites included Maggie O’Farrell’s memoirs of near-death experiences I Am, I Am, I Am, documenting her early life spent in hospital, to escaping a mass murderer, to dealing with her daughter’s almost fatal allergies. Another must-read is Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body & Other Parties – a collection of short stories about the female experience spanning science fiction, horror, and a paranormal reimagining of Law & Order SVU.

Best instagram account:

As both an art lover and reality TV fiend, my top two hitters would be @TabloidArtHistory, that compare Caravaggio’s to infamous paparazzi shots, and @kardashiankolloquium, which impose philosophical and psychoanalytic takes on Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Really.

Best stage show:

Hamilton at Victoria Palace Theatre. I now have the all-singing/all-rapping soundtrack on repeat. Another highlight was catching Jennifer Saunders’ hilarious performance as Duchess of Berwick in Kathy Burke’s production of Lady Windermere’s Fan.

Best TV show:

Big Mouth - a cartoon about the perils of puberty co-created by Nick Kroll - who knew!